Police aviation in the United Kingdom
Police aviation in United Kingdom provides British police forces with an aerial support unit to assist them in pursuit, surveillance and tracking. All police aviation in England and Wales comes under the National Police Air Service (NPAS), while Police Scotland and the Police Service of Northern Ireland operate independent units.
The Cable Street Mural depicting a police autogyro in the top-right corner
G-POLA An EC135 of NPAS, formerly from West Midlands Police.
G-MPSC is an EC145 of NPAS London landing at Heathrow Airport for refuelling
One of PSNI's two EC145 helicopters at Kemble Airport, Gloucestershire
National Police Air Service
The National Police Air Service (NPAS) is a police aviation service that provides centralised air support to the 43
territorial police forces in England and Wales, as well as the three special police forces serving that area. It replaced the previous structure whereby police forces operated their own helicopters, either individually or in small consortia. The project was coordinated by Alex Marshall. West Yorkshire Police is the lead force, and the service is coordinated from the NPAS Operations Centre, at Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
G-POLA An EC135 of NPAS, formerly from West Midlands Police, now based at Newcastle.
G-MPSC is one of NPAS' four EC145s that it inherited from forces that joined the scheme. The former Metropolitan Police helicopters have since been repainted and had the 'Metropolitan Police' markings removed, replacing simply with 'POLICE'
